So this is the Nekusar deck I've put together. I've cut a lot of good cards from this deck as the color combination offers up a large variety of strategies and Nekusar is versatile enough as a General to support them. I would describe my strategy as an early midrange build. I would love to hear from player's who've played him, or played against him as to what works well and if there are any cards (I'm sure there are many) that I am overlooking or synergies that I am letting waste.

Basically what he's saying I'd your missing the point. You don't want to run 4 gyre sage and 2 sylvan carytids. Add the 4 elvish Mystic. There is almost no green deck in any format that doesn't run G mana rampers.

Edit: also voice of the hulcave is not that great. I wouldn't run him he's too slow and costs too much. Compare to archangel of thune who gives +1/+1 counters to every creature every time she hits.

Hmm. I like it. kinda like a rg sphinx/rakdos. They lose a lot of life and up to two creatures. I've often ended turns with 12+ mana and nothing to do. This might just replace mizzium mortars since I have a full set of magma jet already.

Nah all these Niv-Mizzet decklists care more about her untap trigger than her flash ability. It's the whole reason Niv-Mizzet is so good in the deck, on every turn you are drawing at least 3 cards and dealing 3 direct damage. If Niv-Mizzet goes unanswered it's a 2-3 turn clock (swinging) But by all means take it in a creature heavy direction and see where it goes. If anyone wants to decktest with me shoot me a pm, I've been hanging out on cockatrice playing this deck alot.

Depends on what version you play. I settled on a very heavy control deck. With prophet and Niv mezzet you don't Need anything else. As long as you can protect them. thinking of trying the prime speaker tho

What changes would you recommend? I agree the curve is very high. It's a lot better after I changed it, but I doubt it'll get really low without cutting out the Combo entirely. It's probably what I'm going to end up doing.

So I think you'll find this curve much more to your liking (Maybe not!) idk. I really don't think Elvish Mystic is to great is this deck, as our main mana pump (Niv-Mizzet) can't use green.

EDIT: I've ran this latest list a bit. And wow. crazy explosive. So much good card draw it's hard for your opponents to keep up without caving to the draw. And sticking a prophet and Niv-Mizzet is living the dream.

After some playtesting this is what i've settled on for now. On to more testing!

I doubt it is as consistent as the original decklist, but I've found it to be pretty solid. The combo allows for crazy early wins for a control deck, and with (my) list I've found consistency pretty good. With only mortars and Into the Infinite I know what I'm going to get. Best hand really is 2 mortars because you are guaranteed to hit into the infinite and win.

Of course Dracogenius is an amazing finisher on his own, and his card draw allows you to hit the combo easier. Test it out! tell me if you like it!

Mostly these changes were geared towards a better early game. Definitely feels stronger now and more competitive. I'm still unsure about the list and I'm unsure about the combo too. But when the combo goes off... It's a beautiful thing. T4 or T5 wins are possible in a deck where it isn't unusual to go to t20+.

Also the card draw is off the chain. Really liking it. I'm not sure about Izzet charm however. I'm considering swapping it for Magma Jet and seeing how it spins. Any thoughts on a sideboard?

Im basically the same way. I haven't played outside of mtgo recently, but back when I played locally I would help out people who I met if they were new to me and/or young. If I've played you a couple times and don't consider you a sort of friend or at least a friendly face I won't treat you like that. People like that are either other competitive players or the ones who play terribly and make bad decks and don't care. I don't help them. Don't befriend them either. or the ones who are offensive in some way. smelly, rude, angry, etc. the list goes on. Luckily they are usually bad players as well. I suppose unluckily one might think. If you desire a higher level of opponent. But one would hope they wouldn't behave that way.

You're missing the point. The OP is already committed to playing a second set of 1 drops, so the inquiry is limited to 'whsts the next best option after Cackler?'. In that context my commentary is correct.

I would also strongly contend that the winner's list was the worst red deck in the top 16. It's easily the least tuned (21 land? 1 gore-house? No satyr? All problems). That archetype will continue but not without heavy changes.

Basically this but a couple things. First cackler is the second best one drop after satyr. And second if you are playing rdws or air or etc various acronyms put those 8 cards down and then start building around them. Other cards are negotiable. An abundance of 2/x 1 mana cards are necessary.

I really don't want to run green. It has the least to offer control, especially being more creature oriented where as i'm running a creatureless deck. For mana fixing I would mainly rely on Lissandra to search for Swamps/everything. She could be bumped up to a 3 of merely because you want to be able to manafix every game. But with the amount of draw etc I expect to see her a nice amount of the time. Other than adding green (which is probably never going to happen for me personally in this deck) are there any other opinions? Maybe good spells to consider? I thought about running Rakdos Revenge as a nice counterpart to Sphinxs revelation. there are other kill spells and counters and draw too apart from what I've put in the deck.